Forum:Halo 5 Guardians Beta First Impressions

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First Impressions

Not real sure if this is the appropriate place for this and if anyone knows where I should put this let me know.

So, we've gotten the first videos showcasing the Halo 5 Guardians Beta, and boy, it looks promising. Looks amazing, and from what've I've seen they've balanced the game so that casual and competitive players will equally have fun.

First off, the weapons. As I stated in a few posts back, we've got the Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle, DMR, Sniper Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol, SMG, Frag Grenades and what has been identified as a six shot rocket/grenade launcher based on the few little snippets of it. Lets break them down.

>The Assault Rifle appears to have a lower rate of fire than the last incarnations, but has more damage per bullet, more range and more accurate.

>The Battle Rifle appears to function much like its H2/H3 incarnation, with the aesthetic of the H4 version, and has the scope replaced with a reflex sight (more on that later).

>The DMR, I didn't see much of, so anyone who knows more please elaborate.

>Sniper Rifle appears to be much the same, not much to comment on.

>Shotgun, same as H4 version so far.

>Pistol, appears to be a combination of the MCS and M6H, as far as I can tell.

>The six shot rocket/grenade hybrid I have much hopes for. It appears to function like a grenade launcher, but fires small, high explosive rockets. When you use the scope (or Smart Scope, as its now called) your can lock onto other Spartans, giving it a mix of fuel rod cannon and the plasma launcher, being able to rapidly fire 6 small rockets, but you can lock onto targets (I'm assuming you can also lock onto vehicles, but that has not been shown). I'm assuming that this is the UNSC equivalent to the Plasma Launcher, and I'm assuming we'll have the normal Rocket Launcher for anti vehicle use. One other thing to note is that when it was being reloaded, it was reloaded one round at a time, much like the M32 Semi-Auto grenade Launcher.

Next up, Spartan abilities, which each and every player will have access to.

>Thruster Pack, which is functional similar to the AA from H4, but you get two uses out of it before recharge, you can go any direction with it, and when your use it, you stay in first person. It will also allow you to stay in the air for a split second longer than normal, allowing those good with snipers and the like to get mid air kills otherwise impossible.

>Ground Pound, which allows a Spartan to, well, pound the ground? Basically, you use the thruster pack to slam into the ground and kill anything you land on. Given that a Spartan weighs 1000 pounds, this makes sense.

>Clamber, which is basically throwing out crouch jumping for good. Allows Spartans to "clamber" over different obstacles, and the like.

>Sprint. Yes, its back, but much more balanced this time. Instead of a stamina meter determining how long you can sprint, you can sprint forever, but at the cost of your shield not recharging while sprinting. Which means that if your in a fire fight, and your losing, even if you sprint away, you won't recharge your shields until you stop and stand still for a second. this now makes it risky to use sprint, and nicely balances it in my opinion.

>Slide, which is tied to Sprinting. When you reach top speed, you can slide across the ground, in first person view, and slide into cover, or shoot someone at close range. The shotgun will reign supreme with this ability.

>Charge, which will allow American Football to be played in halo. At full speed, you can press the melee button to do a charge, and kill anyone in front of you. Neat.

>Smart Scope: The big one, the one thing that sent everybody into a frenzy at the beginning, but has been accepted for the most part by the community. in essence, its the same scoping mechanic that has always been in Halo, but they've updated it and I personally think that it look awesome. Now all weapons have some sort of zoom, even it its just to slightly improve a guns accuracy a bit, such as with the AR. One thing that people went crazy over was that it look like ADS at first, but after watching every different videos, it functions just like the Classic halo scope view, just now you can see the gun.

that the most if what I wanted to talk about. What are your thoughts, views, opinions, etc. --Siphon 117 18:45, 11 November 2014 (EST)

I just don't understand why your Spartan needs to look down a reflex sight when he has a HUD that can project that zoom anywhere. The reflex sight on the BR just looks tacky, IMO. The AR's zoom function seems really cool, though. It turns it into an actual assault rifle with high accuracy but high recoil. And apparently, the ADS/zoom is activated with left trigger now. Blech. Hopefully there's a control scheme that puts it on the right stick click.--File:PENGUIN4.gifFluffyEmoPenguin^{(ice quack!)} 11:31, 13 November 2014 (EST)

@FluffyEmoPenquinYeah, the reflex sight does look a little weird, but functionaly its the same as the original scope. And as far as the trigger zoom, that's just one of the controller options that you can use. And you can toggle wether you push once to zoom, or have to hold it down, which has been in all of the FPS Halo games. I'm personally going to use Recon, as I always have. Anyway, still looks amazing, can't wait for it.--Siphon 117 16:18, 13 November 2014 (EST)